Tag: illegal varsities

The National Universities Commission recently declared 58 universities illegal for operating without approval. These 58 institutions were axed because they ran afoul of the law. Some of them are based in the West African sub region, including Benin Republic, Ghana, etc., while others are based in Nigeria, America, Europe, among others, but maintained satellite campuses in different parts of Nigeria.

It is really a pity that Nigeria found herself in this kind of situation where our people will be relying on schools in lowly rated Benin Republic for education.

This clearly shows that our people are frustrated by the existing system in Nigeria. I believe that it is not certainly because of quality education that Nigerians are patronising those unapproved institutions; no, not at all. This is because Nigerian universities have quality teachers that can compete with their counterparts all over the world, that, I can confirm. It is just that the abnormalities ravaging every sector in the country have not spared education.

Every year, Nigerian children sit for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, to seek university admission, but a greater percentage of them are denied admission due to non-cogent excuses by regulatory bodies and some university authorities. While the examination body sets its cut-off points, government-owned universities counter with theirs, which in most cases, are higher. Even at that, they still play politics with it. For instance, JAMB sets 180 as the cut-off, tertiary institutions in the country don’t obey it, rather, they will come up with another cut-off, and it is often shrouded in secrecy. As a result of that, most candidates are denied admission. The reason for doing that, I believe, is not necessarily to improve the standard of education in the country, but just to scheme out the children of the poor from securing admission into higher institutions. Parents and their children resort to self-help by turning to the alleged unapproved universities for succour. Just recently, JAMB stated that it was now self-sustaining, but the question it should ask itself is: “Of all the examinations it is conducting, how many admission seekers even with approved cut-offs have secured admission?”

University authorities and regulatory bodies should know that continuous keeping of these youths at home can lead to insecurity, crime and other vices associated with idleness and this is at variance with government’s vision of ridding the society of criminality.

Sometime last year, it was rumoured that a particular university in the South-West stopped admitting non-indigenes. I called its Public Relations Officer to clarify it and he debunked it, stating that their school offered 30 per cent admission to non-indigenes while indigenes got 70 per cent. The total number of candidates admitted was 4,300 out of 36,000 who took the school as first choice. He claimed that the previous year’s admission they did was about 6,000 and that the school nearly incurred the wrath of the regulatory body, which accused them of overstretching the facilities available. Other government-owned schools attribute the anomalies to under-funding and inadequate infrastructure. They say admitting a lot of students will amount to suffocating the existing facilities.

This situation will easily give the school authorities the leeway to do things at their own whims and caprices. And the downtrodden that do not have any influential person or money to lobby have often been at the receiving end.

Meanwhile, the fees of the approved private universities in Nigeria are so astronomical that an average Nigerian worker earning N18,000, minimum wage cannot afford it. For instance, the fees range from N600,000 to N1.5m per session. So, those schools that are unapproved will be handy to admit the candidates that were denied admission with reasonable fees. And since they are getting patronage, they will continue. You can now see that our regulatory agencies, government and university authorities are to blame.

Oftentimes, what we hear is that it is not every child that is gifted to acquire university education, but children of top government functionaries or the affluent in the society are all in the universities, even if they are poor. It is pathetic for the common man.

Axing of unapproved institutions of higher learning in the country is not bad, but the NUC, JAMB and university authorities in the country should ensure that large number of candidates seeking admission in line with the cut-off stipulated by JAMB are offered admission in public schools. University authorities should not play politics with candidates on the guise of quota system. Government should as well fund the schools and provide adequate facilities to ensure conducive learning. This will discourage candidates from seeking admission into those unapproved schools.

Besides, government should advise those alleged unapproved schools on what to do in order to obtain approval where necessary. This is important because proscribing them means relieving some people of their means of livelihood in this austere time. It can also help in absorbing some admission seekers who could not be admitted in public schools.

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